Monday, November 16, 2015

Creating Positive Habits

It takes 21 days to create a positive habit. Getting started and believing you can change are often the hardest parts of getting on the road to success.

I had been programmed from an early age to not be able to trust my body after contracting paralytic polio and then experiencing years of violence at the hands of family members. It was a struggle for me to get traction on my healing journey until I was blessed to find my way first to Ryan J. Means,DC who introduced me to the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza.

My default programming habit had been one of fatigue and anticipating that my body would break down.

It was a constant effort and struggle to make the shift to believing in my body's tremendous capacity to heal everything that went before and to create positive habits that would become an optimal healing environment for myself mind, body and soul.

This morning when my alarm went off at 6:15am and it was still dark outside, my brain is now wired to meditate for 20 minutes, do plank, crunches and clams, have a piece of toast, banana and hydrate and go out the door for a 3.1 mile run.

Oh sure a part of me would have loved to stay snuggled in the blankets but the scale has shifted from weighing heavily on the side of fatigue and pain to one of gratitude and feeling vibrant, whole, healthy and strong motivated by knowing that two months from tomorrow, Team McManus lines up at the start of the Bermuda Half Marathon.

It's funny how the change kind of sneaks up on you. There's not one specific moment when the change happens. It's a cumulative effect of working to create the change and then realizing wow, I've created a change in my body, in my lifestyle through meditation, my strong will and determination, and consistent actions creating the outcomes I want in my life.

Change is not easy. We get hard wired into believing that things have to be the way they are and then when we believe things have to be the way they are, the hard wiring gets reinforced.

Once we change our beliefs, find amazing people to partner with us and support our desire for change, we can reclaim our lives and create a lifetime of positive habits.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

"I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this
sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up,
no matter what else happened.” Wilma Rudolph, polio survivor and Olympic
Champion

I've known challenges since I was five years old beginning
with contracting paralytic polio and then enduring nine years of violence at
the hands of family members. Those early challenges helped me to grow into the
woman that I am today and prepared me to take on the challenge of Post-Polio
Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease by Western Medicine Standards.

Diagnosed in December 2006 at the height of my award winning
career as a social worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs, I had done
what I'd always done when faced with life’s trials and tribulations. I got
still and asked for Divine Guidance. It came through my pen, my divining rod of
healing. Poetry flowed inspiring mind, body and soul to heal.

I took a leap of faith in May 2007, leaving my career to go
on a quest to heal my life. The first poem I wrote, “Running the Race,”
foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon run as a mobility impaired runner. I
feverishly wrote poetry harnessing the power of my imagination to heal my life. Eight
years after beginning my quest to heal the effects of paralytic polio and
trauma, after a serious knee injury, I was able to get traction on my healing journey. I became a woman transformed; a woman who goes the distance on the roads and in my life and who embodies the power of endurance.

I am an Author, an Endurance Runner, a Motivational Speaker, Blogger
and Inspirational Poet.

I hold a BS in Communications from Boston University, an MSW
from Boston College and many fond memories of my veterans and their families
who blessed my life when I worked at the VA . I live in Chestnut Hill
Massachusetts with Tom, my husband, my soul mate and the man who has gone the
distance with me for the past 40 years.